Best restaurant to open in the past year

Why? With upward of 100 new restaurants opening throughout the Capital Region each year, and with a population willing to nominate places that opened as long ago as 2009 or earlier, voting was scattered in this category. In a stunning win that suggests both fervent customers and social-media savvy, the all-natural, vegetarian-fare bakery-café All Good Bakers took the top slot despite having been open only three days a week in a difficult Albany location until moving and expanding in March to the Delso, aka Delaware Avenue South.

AGB’s bread is stellar, the grilled cheese may be the best you’ll ever eat, and the owners’ dedication to fresh, seasonal food from local producers is admirable. The little upstart was able to edge past the latest venture from the area’s biggest and most successful restaurateur, Angelo Mazzone, who opened a suburban sibling of his upscale Prime steakhouses. Coming in third was AGB’s neighbor Mingle, celebrated as the re-emergence of the Korean-born chef Uni-Hui Filomeno.